Chamber and committees

Thank you. All my other questions have been covered, so I am happy to hand back.

Good morning, and thanks for joining us today. I want to ask a few questions about just transition. A lot of our conversation to date has been about the higher levels of female employment in the NHS, social care and education, for example, but it was interesting to see in the Joseph Rowntree Foundation submission that 72.2 per cent of green jobs are held by men. What needs to change, specifically around workplace training opportunities? What are your views on that? Andrea, you mentioned just transition.

Thank you. That is helpful.

We have heard about businesses that have tried to encourage people to go into industry and the college sector also has a key role to play in that, but I know from visits that I have made to some of the fantastic new renewable industry training opportunities that it seems to be the young men coming out of school who are focusing on going into that industry. Louisa, do you have any examples of how these new, exciting industries that offer great career opportunities can resolve the issue earlier on?

Thank you for that. I know that we have run over time, convener.

One really useful example that was raised in the first session was that of the Scottish Ambulance Service changing its rotas to give predictability. I do not know whether you could write to the committee with examples that you have of that happening. It is important work for us to look at. Thanks very much.

No, go for it.

Good morning, and thanks for joining us today. I want to look in more detail at what flexibility looks like, and Marek Zemanik gave a good example. To what extent can the Scottish Government do more to ensure that those flexible working practices are put in place and become the norm in the public sector? Marek gave an example from the NHS, but is that the case just in the Scottish Ambulance Service or has it been more widely adopted in nursing? I have a lot of friends who work in nursing who have managed to get some control over their shifts only by doing bank work, and that is far more expensive for the public to fund. Are there any other examples of what flexible working can look like?

Good morning, panel, and thank you for joining us today. I want to ask a couple of detailed questions, the first of which relates to where funding is being allocated. At the moment, council tax and non-domestic rates are taken into account when general funding allocations by the Scottish Government are decided. As an Edinburgh MSP, I know that we receive one of the lowest levels of funding per head of population—the committee is aware of that, as I raise it at every meeting. Will what is proposed in the bill be considered in future calculations for the general revenue grant allocation? Are discussions going on in Government about that?

The main concern was about what percentage rate the visitor levy would be set at, given that councils will have flexibility to set it at up to 100 per cent. That could make us uncompetitive, depending on where councils decide to set it. The consultation, which a few of you have mentioned, was conducted in 2019, before the pandemic and the cost of living crisis. What further consultation does the Scottish Government intend to undertake? The Scottish Tourism Alliance has called for the committee to undertake some work on that. Given that we are operating in a very different climate after the pandemic, has the Scottish Government revisited that consultation or does it intend to?

Thanks for that. If we have time, I hope that I can come back in with other questions later.

The exemptions question is important. It was decided to exempt cruise ships from the bill, but we need to pursue the detail on allowing councils to decide. For example, would the council tax of people who live in Edinburgh who have family members come to stay allow those family members to be exempt? Has that been looked at? In that situation, friends and family members might be coming to provide care. You said earlier—did I hear this right?—that you had not looked at the definition of “tourist” for the bill, which will lead to a lot of definitions being needed for exemptions.